[PyLadies Parent/Child Code Night held at Bloomberg Tech on 7.24.18]
So on November 11th of last year, I joined a coding community called the PyLadies SF. I thought it would be a good way to become more immersed in the tech world while learning to code. The November meeting was for the organizing committee. I've organized community gatherings in the past, but organizing a tech event was something new to me.
After introducing ourselves and looking at the list of tech companies that would be hosting our meet-ups throughout the year of 2018, we discussed the ideas we had for meet-up themes. A suggestion I had was a parent/child code night where parents--whether in the tech field or not could come and learn more about exposing their children to the world of coding. Iris Bundang, who is also on the organizing committee liked the idea and offered to assist in organizing it with me.
The reason I chose this theme is basically because my children are my universe lol. Before I started learning how to code, I was full time Mommy, homeschooling--the whole nine yards. Anything that I have going in my life that's outside of motherhood, I try to find ways to inject being a parent into since it reflects such a major part of who I am and what matters to me. I wanted other parents to be able to know that this is something beneficial to introduce their own children to and the sooner the better!
For me, it's bigger than simply training up the next generation so that they too can become Software Engineers, it's more of seeing the intricate value of learning how to code--from the creative thinking, to problem solving and working collaboratively that excites me and fuels me to want to share this world with not only my children, but other children as well!
[We have a winner! One of our raffle prize winners showing his new Scratch Jr. Coding Activity Card Set, courtesy of Jan Cash from No Starch Press]
[Another raffle prize winner, with PyLadies SF co-organzier Iris Bundang, showing off her cool prize, courtesy of Jan Cash from No Starch Press]
There were guest speakers who shared resources, tips and ideas that parents could do with their children to get their juices flowing and the excitement stirring. I only wish that we had more time for activities and to hear both speakers speak, they were absolutely amazing!
[Software Engineer Danielle Gellis, sharing a ton of cool and free resources for parents interested in getting their children into coding]
[Computer Science Lecturer Cynthia B. Lee standing in front of a binary letter decoder. She uses binary to create jewelry that spells out your name, how cool is that?! ]
I really hope I have the chance to organize something like this again in the near future, it was really cool and fun to be around so many other parents and children who have an excitement and curiosity to learn such a magical skill.
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